The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Salihu Adelabu, has charged all tiers of tertiary education institutions (TEIs) in Nigeria including, universities, polytechnics, institutes, and colleges to champion the course of entrepreneurship development in the country.
The Commissioner stated this while delivering a speech at the third series of the webinar organized by the University of Ibadan Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (UI.CEI), Bodija, Ibadan, with the themed, “Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Employability”
Prof. Adelabu, who is an entrepreneurship scholar, calls on the participants to focus their teaching on what he referred to as productive entrepreneurship.
The webinar is organized for entrepreneurship lecturers and concerned actors in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Commissioner, who spoke to the topic, “A Review of Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Nigeria: The Strategic Role of Tertiary Education Institutions”, describes entrepreneurship ecosystem as a network of interdependent entrepreneurs, organizations, institutions, and factors coordinated to support, foster and enable productive entrepreneurship within a particular territory.
According to the Ibrahim Babangida University Professor of Finance and Public Management, the outcome of productive entrepreneurship is economic growth and value creation through innovation.
The webinar speaker, Professor Adelabu emphasized that tertiary education institutions (TEIs) have strategic role to play in facilitating an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nigeria by encouraging creativity and innovation among students, faculty, and staff; and by strengthening government-industry-
academia partnerships.
In his remarks, the host of the webinar, Professor Oyedunni Arulogun, the Director, University of Ibadan Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (UI.CEI), appreciated the commissioner for delivering a well-researched paper.
